Marshall Haines
A former scavenger, slaver and bounty hunter, Haines is used to violence and mistrust. Growing up in Midwestern ruins, he would eventually become a minor offical in The Royaume. Childhood Born on August eighth, 2252 to a pair of scavenger parents, Haines grew-up in a working family. His earliest memories would be watching his parents pick through the rubble of the military base north of River's Landing. He would have difficulty making friends early on, but would eventually be tolerated by other youths. leaving When he was 16, Haines and a few others were breaking into a deeper part of the base containing the old officers' quarters. There they discovered nearly untouched gear, mainly odds and ends, but a decent amount of weapons. Haines, when it was his turn to pick what he wanted, selected an old Chinese assault rifle that an officer had apparently taken as a trophy of war. After he had spent some time cleaning it, breaking it apart and generally make sure it wasn't going to blow up in his face, Haines grew confident enough to fire the thing and found it worked fine. After growing tired of slaving, he gathered what money he had, spent it on bullets, food, and general supplies then walked across the remains of the old bridge that separated the town from Missouri. Adulthood After wandering through a few towns and killing a few mole rats and the occasional raider he arrived in Joe, which was formerly Saint Joseph. after getting very drunk at the bar, a man approached and offered him some "real party favors" which turned out to be psycho. Haines didn't know this and took two hits, and woke up two weeks later in he ruins of Kansas City. After stumbling around, he had found a wandering merchant who he traded some salvaged goods for water, he slowly began remembering what happened. after he took a hit he demanded more and, after the man refused, shot the trader dead. The sheriff hearing this, came to investigate and Haines shot him also. he grabbed all the remaining psycho and the sheriff's shotgun and knife, and as he walked out into the street after murdering everyone in the bar, was shot in the chest. not feeling it in his frenzy, however, thought it was invisible monsters and started running south into the woods and continued to do so, taking psycho so the effects never wore off. He somehow made it to Kansas city with the chest wound and passed out in an abandoned shack. He attempted to lay low for a while, but the little food he had was soon consumed, causing him to look for work. the first person he asked sported an odd tattoo on his face and asked if he was adverse to some "wet work". When Haines said no, the man brought him a large warehouse that was actually the local slavers guild. When he was ushered inside he found himself looking at rows and rows of cages; some empty but a fair majority full. he was told by the man in charge that to join he needed to pass a "test." the test was actually a fight to the death against a particularly unruly slave, who stood a foot over Haines, and who had already murdered a slaver. Jacob was thrust into a room with him after his weapons were stripped and was forced to fight this giant. After being beaten to within an inch of his life, Haines saw his way of winning; there was a piece of rusty rebar in the room and Haines lunged for it and stabbed it into the slave's chest, killing him. In the Guild After getting some time to heal, the head slaver took him to the armory. Having been given a suit of hardened leather armor and a .357 magnum. it was pretty easy for the first few months: a couple of raids, herding the meat, weeding out troublemakers. After a while, he got put in charge of their supplies, which, while not as glamorous as going on raids, was just as important. His job was to check that the equipment was all there, and report it if any was missing. It was this that enabled Haines to earn a little extra cash, as a few slavers would "borrow" some gear and pay him to look the other way. This carried on until the warehouse was attacked by abolitionists. That's not to say that he was killed. In fact, all the slavers survived and they captured the attackers. However, this was unknown to Haines. When the fighting started he looked out a window and saw what appeared to be a horde attacking. In reality, he had been using some Jet that day, so he grabbed his gear and about two-thousand ring-pulls and fled. He figured the best place for him to go would be back to the Landing, so he slowly headed there, watching out for any abolitionists (when it was actually the slavers looking for him). It took him three weeks to make the trip, and when he got there he saw that the town had been taken over. Slow time When he crossed what remained of the bridge, he was stopped by three raiders who demanded a toll to pass. Haines slowly reached for his bag of tabs, but quickly drew his revolver which was right next to it and shot the three raiders who, being sluggish on account of a hangover and buffout withdrawals, barely had their weapons raised. When the others in the band came running, Haines headed towards the river banks and found a raft. He quickly jumped aboard this raft and pushed it into the water. What he neglected to notice, however, was that he had no way of steering the craft. He drifted on the river for three days until he arrived at the ruins St. Louis, where the local junta locked him in jail, mistaking him for a slaver spy. He spent ten years in that "prison" which, in reality, was a forced labor camp where he and his fellow laborers were abused and used as cheap material to clear and reclaim the ruins of the city. He had ample time to appreciate the irony of the situation between beatings and maggot infested-bread and still-water. His time was further hardened by his constant withdrawal symptoms from Pyscho. By his seventh year, he had been broken: he quietly obeyed the guards and bosses and did what they said, he stopped fighting other prisoners and let them take his food and contemplated suicide. His attempt (walking away from the site and having a guard shoot him) failed, as the guard only shot him in the leg, and had two other prisoners drag him (literally) to the 'Hospital' a tent with three cots and an old veterinarian who only cared about getting their current injury fixed. While incapacitated Haines made a friend with the occupier of the other cot, Thomas Malac (the third was the 'doctor's'). They first only made small talk about their pasts, how they got captured, what they would do if free, and slowly became friends. This lasted for only a week, when Thomas was told to go back to work. Haines was saddened by this turn of events, and started to day-dream how to escape, laughing in the face of the guards, killing the ruling band of thugs that called themselves a military, when he realized he could actually escape, if he was very careful. The fact that several factions shared power led to the occasional skirmish, a fact that he was keenly aware of. After being judged fit to return to work, he continued to mindfully work and go about his regular routine, but also kept his ears and eyes open for anything that could be used to cause a fight. The opportunity presented itself three years later, when one of the guards was sick, and a member of another group was pulled to substitute for him. This man had a unique dagger that he showed to the prisoners and threatened to use "on anyone who thinks they can get away with anything." he was enraged when, as soon as he finished speaking another guard told him in front of everyone to put away his sister's hair pin. He walked away muttering darkly. Most of the prisoners missed this exchange, but Haines (having ran an errand for one of the other guards) did not. Around the time they usually went back to their bunk house, the dagger fell out of the sub's pocket and he walked off and didn't notice it. Haines seized on the chance and grabbed it, hiding it in his pants. Later that night he snuck out and found the guard who insulted the stand in. Despite liking this guard, as he rarely abused anyone, Haines plunged the dagger into the guard's spinal cord and managed to sneak back into the bunkhouse. The next day started with gunfire and shouting as the factions in the junta fought each other over the dead guard. With the guards busy fighting for their lives, Haines led the prisoners into rioting and over overwhelmed the few guards they encountered. Their good fortune was reversed however as they exited an alley and found themselves in front of a machine-gun emplacement. Haines immediately dropped to the ground and rolled behind a car as it opened fire on the prisoners, killing most of them in several seconds. When they paused to reload four of the few convicts that were still alive charged the emplacement, while Haines ran to where the town joined the river. he was joined on the way by Thomas who thought he was cut down in the first burst. Both were laughing in joy when they saw the river and a raft that brought down reinforcements that morning, but when they tried to steal it, the pilot emerged from a nearby building and started shooting at them, hitting Thomas in the neck. They pushed the boat into the water before more could show up and were out of the city completely before Thomas succumbed to his would and died. Haines went through the supplies on the raft to distract his mind for a moment and found a combat shotgun, 100 shells, and armor. Southern Experiences Finally free, though alone, Haines floated all the way to "the city of kings" as he heard one resident put it. His stay in New Memphis was the complete opposite of his time in prison: he ate finely, drank heavily, got back on Psycho, and generally took it to extremes. He also took to walking around and exploring the huge city in between benders and whatever odd job he could take to continue the hedonistic habits he had became accustomed to, with the Zoo his favorite place to be when it was open. He would've stayed longer than the few months he did, but decided to leave as to not be brutally killed. The specifics were: he was wondering past the Jail where he saw two guards kicking and stomping a prisoner who was badly bleeding. Haines, who was very high on Psycho at the time, or else he might have left, asked them to stop. The ensuing conversation and escalation into shoves are still a bit of a blur, but he clearly recalls being knocked in the jaw with the baton of one of the jailers, and while he was on the ground, pulling out the knife he had taken to keeping in the back of his boot and leaping up and planting it in one guard's stomach. the other reached for a pistol, but Haines already pulled the knife out and stabbed it into the second's throat. He quickly pulled it out, took the pistol, two spare mags the guards had on them and ran back to where he was staying. His own time in prison saved him from doing time in this one, or more likely dying. Guards, while (usually) good at their jobs, were also very predictable; they look for the hidden con instead of the one in front of them. It was for this reason that Haines slung his shotgun across his back, put the pistol with the food and water in his backpack and fell in with a small crowd going towards the jail and a large amount of jailers looking for the killer. He stayed until the guards pushed everyone away and the crowd dispersed. He immediately head to the outskirts of town, but tried to stay behind all the guards and slipped out fairly easily. He headed west on foot, not knowing that if he got another raft he could get to The Big Easy, but he was still very weary of traveling by raft anyhow. Falling in with a small group of adventurers, he found that he fit in pretty well with them, not counting where he almost got shot because of the tattoo on his head. He picked up a lot from them; how to pick a basic lock, to be a shrewder barterer and perhaps his favorite, a song for those nights far away from where his home used to be. Haines was far from an anchor, however, as he talked their way out of more than a few raider attacks, as "I was in the joint with guys like this." When diplomacy failed, however, his shotgun made short work of most raiders, with the rest of the groups firepower taking care of the survivors. his travels with them ended on a high point, parting happily with them and continuing westward toward New Orleans. This high point didn't last very long however as he was ambushed by several swampers a few miles outside of Yazo, the remains of Yazoo City. He managed to fight them off, killing one, but not before suffering several wounds. He was found by a trader from town and taken to the local doctor. After his recovery he was told of the bounty on all nearby swampers, and that he would be paid for the one he killed. Staying in town to recover, he helped hold off more than one swamper attack, and when he feeling strong enough four months later, he put together a small crew from the few mercenaries in town, and set off into the swamps. They encountered swampers almost immediately, and played cat-and-mouse games over the next three days,at the end of which they brought the heads of twelve swampers and the bodies of two mercs. Haines invested in a suit of light combat armor with his share of the caps, and spent the few remaining on food and water. He then organized another group, this one a bit larger and told them to meet in three days. The second trip into the swamps was much harder, despite the lack of swampers. The tracker for the group was a novice that had led them deep into the swamp and gotten lost. To add to this, one of the men had stepped into a mudhole, and whose metal armor had dragged him down like an anchor. As a result, everyone was stepping careful and navigating around any place that looked dangerous. Haines grew tired of this on the third day, and having lost a man without even seeing a swamper yet, ordered them back to town. Their tracker didn't take them to town, but somehow stumbled onto the park of the Clan they were hunting. Pausing to ensue they were ready, Haines lead the charge into the park, shotgun blowing the unsuspecting mutants apart. The bounty-hunters had entered the compound before any real resistance could form, and had cleansed it of mutant life within the hour. They severed thirty-six heads before setting the buildings aflame. The proof they brought may have been gorey, but the stories told painted the group as heroes, saving the town from savages. Haines even developed a small reputation as a swamper fighter with some nearby towns, one of which hired him to teach it's guards. The contract lasted for a year, at the end of which Jacob traveled South. His fortune would soon change, however. On October 10th, he was camping one night, only to awake to bondage. His captors were slavers with ties to the Guild from the mid-west, who had set a price for his head. They were going to take him to New Orleans to board a raft to the the Lexxx, where his life would start again. He was spared this fate, however, being purchased by a noble of the Royaume, Arthur Casson. The noble saw his plight and freed him, following it up by offering him the position of Marcheal. Haines refused at first, not trusting the stranger, but his offer of revenge was too good to turn down. Since then, he has been a loyal servant of the Royaume. Currently Mainly training and disciplining the recruits, he has managed to build a warband the equivalent to any he had been apart of, and even help take part of Barataria Bay. Since then, he has either trained the local militia on how to defend themselves, or the mercenaries on how to assault a town. Personality Solitary and gruff, Haines seems every bit the vile human his tattoo tells him to be. He is prone to violence when angry, has no qualm about enslaving other humans and is usually irritated from over a decade of Psycho use. Despite this, however, he is willing to open up to anyone who goes through the effort to gain his trust, as demonstrated in his interactions with Arthur Casson, not only obeying the noble but also treating him as a close friend. Category:Characters Category:Raiders Category:Mercenaries Category:Slavers